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OUR COUNTRY AND OUR WASHINGTON, 



A DISCOURSE, 



DELIVERED 0^f 



SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 22, 1852, 



BIRTHDAY OE WASHINGTOI, 



THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Rev. C, M. BUTLER, D. D. 



SHAPIAIN OF THB SEITATE OF THE UWITED «TATES. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST^ 



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WASHINGTON: 


PRINTED BY 


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1852, 


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DISCOURSE. 



" We have heard with our ears, O G-od, our Fathers have told us what 
work thou didst in their days, in the times of old." — Psalm 44: 1. 

This Birtli-clay of Washington is a " Thanksgiving 
Day " to the people of this country, which it needs no 
proclamation of Governors to persuade them to remem- 
ber and to keep. It is a day when the image of the 
venerable Father of his Country rises before every 
heart, and when our national blessings — many of which 
he was a chosen instrument in securing — pass in review 
before every mind. I shall, therefore, give expression 
to the feelings which pervade all our land to-day, if I 
enumerate some of those blessings, and contemplate 
the character of him whose memory we revere as the 
great, the good, the wise Father of his Country. The 
subject is appropriate alike to the place, and to the day. 

I. The- first national blessing which I mention is — ■ 
tlie character of the country ivhich Providence has as- 
signed to us. 

The country which we inhabit is such as has been 
allotted to no other modern nation. All the existing 
nations of the world live in lands which have been the 
homes of numerous generations. It was our peculiar 
lot to be placed in a new land, where nature " wanton- 
ed as in her prime, and played at will her virgin fan- 
cies," How diiferent must be the influences brought to 
bear upon a people, who occupy a country where they 
are surrounded with the monuments of the past, whose 
daily steps are over the tombs of many generations, 
who breathe the air in which are floating legendary tra- 



ditions of early and romantic days, wlio see tlie centn- 
ries of their history notched upon olden tower and 
temple — how different must these influences be, from 
those which surround a young nation, placed in a new 
land, and spoken to more by the impressive solemnities 
of nature, than by the works of man. It is unavoidable, 
that the external environments of a nation, the site it 
occupies, the monuments which daily meet its eye, the 
scenes in the midst of which its life is passed, should 
have a powerful influence in moulding that nation's- 
character. Old cities, venerable cathedrals, honored 
tombs, famous battle-fields, palaces of power, around 
which gather associations of ancestral pomp and glory — 
speak to the national pride of man, and fan his local 
love^ and fashion his soul to a narrow and sectarian pa- 
triotism. But when educated and civilized man is re- 
moved from the influence of such associations, and, no 
longer moulded by daily contact with prescriptive in- 
stitutions and local monuments, stands amid the subli- 
mities and beauties of a new and wondrous land, his 
nature will spread into larger proportions, and his free 
mind act with more vigor, directness, and success, than 
amid old and familiar scenes. Look at a good and 
thoughtful man in the days of the First James, or the 
First Charles, of England, who — sickened of the base- 
ness and tyranny all around him — strives to reach truth 
upon the great questions of human rights and human 
governments. Think of the scenes, influences, and as- 
sociations, in the midst of which he sits down to medi- 
tate on these high themes. He cannot look at these 
(questions under the clear and unclouded light of reason. 
Glaring colors, cross lights, distorting media, prevent a 
true conception of the great and unchanging rights of 
the governors and the governed. There' are the asso- 
ciations, prejudices, and enthusiasms of his childhood 



and youth, wliich. memory brings before Mm under tlie 
name of arguments and reasons ; and tlieir rosy light 
beautifies the enormities of the past. A thousand years 
of national history, trailing their glories and their 
glooms, throw such strong lights and shadows upon 
these truths, that their real character cannot be dis- 
cerned. A glittering throne casts over them its blind- 
ing glare. A splendid aristocracy adds its dece23tive 
glow. A gorgeous church contributes its consecrating 
and glorifying ilame. And with all these blending and 
blinding lights thrown over the subject of his contem- 
plation, how can it seem to him other than they make it 
to appear? How can he well avoid, either giving his 
sanction to all claims of power, or of considering all 
government as an outrage and a wrong ? But now take 
this man from amid these scenes, and place him in a new 
wide world ; with a band of brothers, whom a common 
necessity makes his equals ; with a Bible in his hand, 
which tells him that " of one blood God made all na^- 
tions that dwell on the face of the earth ;" amid ice- 
winds which would whistle as keenly on crowned and 
coronetted brows, as on the uncovered locks of the worn 
emigrant and pilgrim — place him there to study human 
rights and human governments, and he shall look at the 
question as it stands out under the clear and uncolor- 
ed light of reason. Should he dare yield his assent to 
the old sophistries and lies, which would prove the 
many to be made for the convenience of the few, all the 
stern and sublime scenes about him would utter their 
solemn confutations in his ear. The stones would cry 
out, that they grow no softer beneath a monarch's 
tread ; and press with equally relentless weight upon 
the corpses of the ignoble and the mighty. The stars 
in their courses would fight against the falsehood, and 
declare that they sparkle as bi'ightly through the cre\d- 



6 

ces of a cavern, as on gilded palaces and spear-girt 
towers. 

11. It is another of our distinguisliing mercies — that 
our ancestry was of a homogeneous hind — that the 
colonies which stretched along our shores, Avere not 
from various lands — because it is in consequence of this 
fact that a more complete national unity has been se- 
cured, in a country of unequalled vastness, than obtains 
in any other leading nation of the world. If large and 
influential colonies from Spain and Portugal had been 
established in our central positions, and connected with 
us in our struggles, and incorporated into our Confede- 
racy, our Union would have been a mosaic work, where 
poor and friable materials would have joined those of 
strength and beauty, whose unity a slight concussion 
might have destroyed. But there is now a more uni- 
form type of national character all over this country, 
from Maine to Georgia, and from New York to San 
Francisco, than that which prevails in the little British 
Islands. How important this state of things is for na- 
tional prosperity and permanence, we need not say. 
The people of these States had been colonists together, 
under the same remote imperial power. They had 
together resisted its ai'bitrary enactments. They 
had together sustained a long and exhausting war. 
They spoke the same language, and had the same lite- 
rature. Their moral and intellectual training had been 
similar ; the elements of their personal character were 
much the same. In short, they were distinctively Aone- 
rican in character, and scarcely more like the English 
than like other nations. " Between the extreme North 
and the extreme South," says a distinguished statesman,* 
" there was nothinof more considerable to break its ex- 

*D.D. Barnard, 



pressive unity than such agreeable shades of character, 
as might mark the remote descendants of the Round- 
head and the Puiitan on the one hand, and the Cavalier 
of the same country on the other ; such shades of dif- 
ference as might mark the varying moods of the same in- 
di'sddual character, break up its dullness and tedious 
uniformity, and give it animation, strength, and beauty." 

III. Another peculiarity of our national existence, 
replete with blessings, is, that loe occvpy a land every- 
wliere rounded hy distinct houndaries^ wliicli is of vast 
extent^ and wliich includes every variety of soil^ climate^ 
and production. Very great must be the influence of 
this state of things on our continued national unity 
and homogeneousness, and on our prosperity. 

It is a condition of all the other great nations of the 
earth, that they are not merely national. They are 
imperial. They rule over distant colonies, or detached 
provinces, which are not assimilated to the parent 
State, but retain the j)eculiarities, customs, and spirit 
of their origin. Countries which hold colonies and de- 
pendent provinces, not only thereby lose compactness 
and national indi^dduality ; but cannot be so free in 
their own home institutions, as they would be without 
them. The necessity of a vigorous exercise of power 
abroad, leads to its assumption and exercise at home. 
This holding on to colonies and dependencies is, most 
frequently, like the fastening of a dead body to a tree : 
they rack and tear the tree, and they continue to be 
dead. Now it is a peculiarity of our country, that we 
do not, and never can, extend ourselves by colonies and 
dependencies. All our additions must be graftings, so 
that they shall increase the l^eauty and stateliness of 
the parent tree, and receive from it something of its 
own peculiar life. Those who join us must be, and are, 



assimilated rapidly to tlie body into whicli tliey are^ 
taken. All onr hopes, as a nation, depend upon onr 
unity ; and this seems to be secured to us no less by 
our homogeneous ancestry, than by the physical fea- 
tures of the land in which we dwell. We are so large 
that anything which is near us and becomes our own,, 
must become a portion of ourselves — " as kindred 
drops are mingled into one." The two oceans isolate 
us — the chain of lakes, the Mississippi, and all the 
rivers and boundaries of the land clasp us round, and 
hold us clamped, in indissoluble national unity. 

lY. It is a distinctive and peculiar blessing of our 
land, that the understanding and love of tJie true prin- 
ciples of free government^ and the ability to put them 
in practice were so early established among us, without 
those civil feuds which are the awful price which other 
nations have been compelled to pay for the inestimable 
treasure, and which many, even at that price, have 
failed to gain. 

The value of this blessing it would be difficult to 
over-estimate. ISTo nation of the Old World has 
reached more just, enlightend, and free principles of 
government than our own mother land of Britain. But 
it is fearful to think at how slow a rate, and at what a 
fearful cost of individual suffering and national convul- 
sion, the blessing has been obtained. The history of Eng- 
land, from the First James to the Revolution of 1688, 
is a record of the struggle of law with prerogative, of 
liberty with despotism, of right with might. How dif- 
ficult, in the circumstances in which the champions of 
truth and righteousness were there placed, to fight their 
noble battle, with pure and unembittered hearts. Such 
men, standing almost alone, seeing the upper classes 
subservient and sycophantic, and the masses, either 



IjiyuWh 



'-LtX, 



submissive under all claims of power, or given up to a 
spirit of license, whicli tliej called liberty ; stung by 
oppression into madness, just when they most needed to 
be calm ; — sucli men, the preachers, apostles, and mar- 
tyrs of human rights in England, wrought a work and 
met a fate which entitle them to the homage and ad- 
miration of the world ! And how slowly did their per- 
secuted principles pervade the people ! How were they 
insidted, branded, persecuted, imprisoned, and murder- 
ed, by despotic power ! And when at length, under the 
intolerable despotism of Charles, the people awoke, and 
armed, and went forth to do battle, to the death, with 
theii' oppressors, how was the glory of that noble cham- 
pionship marred by e\Tl passions, by fanatical excess, 
by examples of tyranny kindred to that against which 
they contended; and how was the progress of that 
struggle darkened by accumulated woes ; and how was 
its triumph signalized by other despotisms in the name 
of freedom ; and how was its temporary defeat made 
horrible by the fiendish brutality of a Jeftries ; and dis- 
heartening to the hopes of freedom by the martyrdom 
of the lofty Russel, and the gifted Sydney ! 

The beautiful nymph Liberty had a harder des- 
tiny and wore a sadder brow in England than in our 
own free land. I see her born in the home of the 
scholar who bends over the stories of old renown. I 
see her pass her childhood and youth in musing and 
moody solitude. I discern her next, pale and passion- 
ate, hovering near the midnight conclave, where pat- 
riots are compelled to meet with the secrecy of conspir- 
ators. Then I behold her liuo'erino", with flashins^ eve, 
around the halls of stormy legislation and debate. At 
length I see her on the battle-field, armed and radiant, 
apparent and acknowledged queen of the hosts whom 
she leads to victory. Thence I follow her to cabinets 



10 

and closets of negotiation and debate, where lier brow 
is knit with care, and her voice grows dominant and 
harsh ; and not until after the chastening influences of 
years of imprisonment and oppression does she issue 
forth, purified and calm, and with a peaceful smile, pre- 
pared to exercise a blessed and benignant sway. 

Look at some of the nations of the Old World. How 
mournful it is to see, by their jDast and recent history, 
that the battle of fi'eedom is to be fought over and over 
again, because when it is won, her champions know not 
how to secure their triumph! The people of those 
lands can demolish the grim bastiles of tyranny, but can- 
not erect the beautiful and proportioned temple of con- 
stitutional freedom. There are political Samsons, who 
can lay hold of the Dagon temples of desjDotic power, 
and shake them to the earth ; but they themselves will 
perish in the ruins. It is melancholy to observe what 
crude notions and destructive theories of freedom pre- 
vail among the champions of popular rights in Europe. 
How seldom do they connect the idea of duties with 
the idea of rights ! How often do they run the doc- 
trine of political equality, into wild theories of socialism 
and agrariauism ? How little do they seem to com- 
pi'ehend that obedience to laio is loyalttj to liberty f 
Hence it has so often occurred that the genius of free- 
dom has, in Europe, worn the aspect of a fury, and gone 
forth with flaming torch and brandished sword, stirring 
up the multitude to mutiny and rage, to plunder and 
excess. It is the sad efl;ect of long political enslavement, 
that its victims can with difiiculty conceive of tolerant 
laiv-enacting^ law-enforcing^ and laio-ahiding libeHy ! 

Now, in contrast with the toil, and blood, and suffer- 
ing, at the expense of which the idea of regulated lib- 
erty was reached, and its reality secured, in our mother- 
land, and with the wild and mistaken notions of free- 



11 

dorn Arliich prevail among the cliampions of liberty in 
Europe, behold the idea aud the reality of freedom, as 
it exists with us. Liberty regulated by law — rights 
claimed from, because conceded to, others — the tidll of 
the people expressed through laws and constitutions — 
these are the fundamental privileges and princijiles of 
all our citizens. They o'rew with our colonial o-rowth 
and strenojthened with our streno-tli as we became a 
nation. We did not reach them after a long intestine 
struggle with our brethren and blood ; but we had them 
in possession, and they nerved our arms, and knit our 
hearts, when we began the battle for independence. 
In this respect, as in many others, we enjoyed a pecu- 
liar and unequalled blessing. Freedom, which other 
nations shall secure only throu^-h lono; strife and revo- 
lutions, and which was established in our mother-land, 
only through many woes, came to us without a mark of 
sorrow on her brow, or the stain of blood ujDon her gar- 
ments. The benignant genius of American liberty was 
not born in stealth and nurtured in seclusion. Her glad 
childhood and youth Avere passed on the sounding 
shores, in the bracing mountain airs, amid the forest 
solitudes, and by the wild rivers of our glorious land. 
She grew up in health, and bloom, and beauty ; and 
when our young nation become her champion, she spake 
to it words of soberness, and breathed into it a steady 
couraoje, a lo^^ino- enthusiasm, and an indomitable will. 

A . There is another feature of our political condition 
which is a peculiar blessing. I refer to the Union of 
Sovereign States in one Nationality. In this particular 
we are distinguished from aU the republics of ancient 
and modern times. This has no precedent and no par- 
allel. Familiarity with it may make us uuconscious of 
its singular adaptation to a country so large and vari- 



12 

ous as our own. A Republic so large, not divided into 
sej)arate governments, witli local legislatures, but sub- 
ject, in all its minutest arrangements, to a central ex- 
ecutive and legislative authority, could not long exist. 
The distant portions of the country would grow restive 
under an authority which could not understand its in- 
terests, and provide for all its minute and endless exi- 
gencies, and as its spirit of discontent and disobedience 
increased, the central authority would feel called upon 
to adopt more stringent measures of coercion and con- 
trol. But observe what a provision for permanence 
and prosperity is furnished by the present union of 
various independent States .under one government. It 
can exercise all the authority necessary for a national 
administration, without the danger of undue centrali- 
zation. It can leave each portion of the country to pro- 
vide for its own wants, as a separate community, having 
its own peculiar characteristics, w^ithout allowing it to 
neutralize and nullify the authority of the central ad- 
ministration. The tastes, prejudices, and pride of each 
locality can be satisfied in that State legislation, which 
will provide such municipal regulations and State en- 
actments as are consonant to the habits and desires of 
the people ; while, at the same time, they shall experi- 
ence the patriotic glow of feeling which becomes the 
citizens of a great and united nation. It is this which 
enables us, without detriment or danger to the integrity 
of the Republic, to incorporate States which are dis- 
tant thousands of miles from the Caj)ital, and separated 
from other States by wide and dreary wildernesses. In 
nothing connected with our country is the providence 
of God to be more admired, than in tLat conjuncture 
of conflicting interests which forced the States, at the 
same time to continue their separate existence, and to 
unite in one nationality. It is this, which, under God, 



13 

lias given us our prosperity and success. It is this 
which makes us respected and honored by the nations 
of the earth. It is on the continuance of this that our 
prosperity and glory in the future wiU depend. If, 
from the bright galaxy which constitutes our political 
system, one star should fall, woidd it not be as that star 
which is called in the book of Eevelations, wormwood,^ 
" which fell upon the waters," and of which it is said 
that " a third part of the waters upon which it fell be- 
came wormwood ; and that many died of the waters 
because they were bitter ?" Great, in proportion to the 
present blessings of this happy confederation, would be 
the curse, and the loss consequent upon its destruction. 

VI. The prosperous condition of the masses of the 
people in this country^ compared with that of every 
other nation of the earth, is one of our peculiar blessings. 
The high wages which are given to labor in this country, 
is productive of great and salutary results. It is a great 
blessing, but not the greatest, that it furnishes the peo- 
ple with the comforts and even the elegancies of life. It 
is a still greater blessing that it enables the industrious 
and the thrifty poor, to secure the advantages of educa- 
tion for themselves and theii' children. But beyond 
these obvious and immediate advantages, it is productive 
of extensive good. It is a permanent cause of great and 
increasing benefit to the State at large, and to that class 
in particular. In many old countries, where labor is 
abundant and scantily rewarded, it is the policy of 
Governments to nurse employments for the people. In 
consequence of this, there is little effort to introduce 



10. Anil \\w lliird angel soandeil, ami tlieie fell a jjreat star from Heaven, burning a5 it were a lani|i; 
and II fell u|ion the third part of tlie rivers, and npou the fonntains of waters ; 

J I. And the name of tin; star is called wormwood: and the third part of the waters became worm- 
wood; and many men diijd of the waters, beeause they were made bitter.— i?eu. 'Alh clia/)., 10, II vs. 



14 

sucli improvements in agriculture, manufactures, and tlie 
arts, as shall save tlie labor of the human hand. That 
hand must be kept employed in useless and frivolous 
labo]* lest being idle, it find " some mischief still 
to do," — lest it lay hold of palaces and thrones. Such 
a state of things is adverse to all progress. But 
in our country, where labor is dear and not abundant, 
the opposite results ensue. Ingenuity is tasked to con- 
struct machines to save the labor of human hands, and 
to avoid the expense of their employment. Now ob- 
serve the consequences of this one fact. It stimulates 
the ingenuity of men to construct machines which shall 
do cheap, rapid, and abundant work. It puts the 
powers of nature and of science in motion to add to the 
wealth, the convenience, and the happiness of man. It 
does not consign increasing numbers to frivolous drudge- 
ries for small pay, in which they must continue ignorant 
and degraded. It takes out of the hands of ever-increas- 
ing numbers, the more crushing labor of the workshop, 
and allows them to step up to a higher range of work, 
in which they shall enjoy more leisure, emolument, and 
means of improvement, and be elevated in the scale of 
being. When, therefore, we see an American machine 
a,t the World's Fair, winning wide admiration, and gain- 
ins" a medal, because it enables two men to do the work 
of twelve, w€ have cause for something more than na- 
tional pride, because of a triumph over nations whose 
agriculture is many centuries older than our own. We 
have reason for gratitude. We see it to be not only 
a machine to gather in harvests, but a great engine of 
social amelioration and reform. It gathers in other 
harvests than those of corn. It brings in national in- 
telligence, power, and plenty. 

VII. It is another and peculiar blessing that in our 



15 

country religion is left entirely free. Not only is there 
no union of Cliiircli and State, but absolute liberty of 
conscience in matters pertaining to religion, is secured. 
No man lies under civil disabilities because of bis reli- 
gious or irreligious convictions. No restriction is laid 
upon tlie profession and diffusion of religious opinions, 
and no penalties are inflicted upon any tiling that bears 
tliat name, unless under that name, it becomes, in fact. 
a violation of the law of the land. This is indeed a pe- 
culiar and a crowning mercy. 

How emphatically and distinctly did our Savior pro- 
claim that his kingdom was not of this world ! How 
careful he ever was, in his own person, to show that he 
did not assume to guide the civil authority in its func- 
tions, but acknowledged his own and his disciples' ob- 
ligation to obey its laws. His was to be a spiritual 
kingdom, whose outward form, sacraments, rites, and 
worship, might subsist under every form of govern- 
ment, and be a detriment to none and a benefit to all, 
by the elevated morality which it should inculcate and 
exemplify. Yet, notwithstanding this explicit testi- 
mony of the master, how seldom has the Church been 
free from some injurious connection with the State ! 
Either the Church has claimed lordship over kings and 
governments, or governments have claimed the right 
to regulate the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the 
Church, or proffered its hurtful help to pension its min- 
isters and sustain its services ; and the flattered and de- 
luded Church has too often accepted the ruinous and 
paralyzing patronage. 

Happily with us the Church is. entirely unconnected 
with the State. Entirely unconnected.^ we say, because 
the fact that the State sometimes makes use of the ser- 
vices of the Ministers of God to give high sanction and 
solemnity to public acts, or to exert a purifying influ- 



16 

enee on those who do their work, no more implies a 
nnion of Churcli and State than the fact that she em* 
ploys surgeons in her army and navy for the health and 
comfort of those in her employment, implies a union of 
the State with the medical fraternity. That exquisite 
patriotism which is alarmed at the prospect of the 
spiritual domination of the Church over the State, be* 
cause a score of harmless Chaplains offer up prayers for 
the country and its rulers, ought to feel equal alarm 
lest the State fall under the dominion of the Doctors. 

We may say, then, that the Church is entirely dis- 
connected from the State. If she should control the 
State, she would lose her lofty character, and become 
more and more like a mere human government. If she 
should be controlled by the State, then she would fail 
to appeal to the souls of men with a divine and con- 
straining authority and claim. If the State sends the 
Church to speak to men in reference to their religious 
interests, men will receive their words as a message 
from the State^ rather than as a message from the Court 
of Heaven — from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
This is the reason why the religion of the Savior never 
can exert its full spiritual influence over the souls of 
men, if it be in alliance with human institutions. It 
must come to men as an authorized messenger from 
Heaven, which can consent to accept no modification of 
its message from human powers. It must appeal to 
man as an immortal. It must lay hold of his conscience 
as a guilty creature of God, over whom retribution is 
impending, and before whom an eternal Heaven and 
an eternal hell lie waiting his own speedy determina- 
tion. In an age like this, of activity, of enterprise, of 
crowded life, of strange events, absorbing novelties 
and rapid progress, which make existence a succession 
x)f gala days, religion must come clothed with awful 



17 

dignity and authority, as a messenger of Ood^ or it will 
speak in vain to tlie men of this generation, and of the 
coming generation?. Only thus shall the Gospel speak, 
like its divine author, as never man spake, and with au- 
thority and power, to the souls of men. 

yill. And now, when we contemplate these bless- 
ings which we enjoy, and thank God for the fair field 
given us, and the propitious influences under which, as 
a nation, we have been trained, and ask to what one man, 
more than another, we have been indebted for our ex- 
istence as a nation — before every mind there rises the 
venerable and majestic form of WASHiN'aTO]^" ! Every 
great movement and crisis in human affairs has its 
instrument, trained and qualified by God. The Refor- 
mation had its Luther in Germany, and its Cranmer in 
England. The Revolution of 1688, in -England, had 
its William ; Republicanism and Constitutional Liber- 
ty in America, had its Washhs^gton. He was qualified 
for his work, by a character whose elements were so 
kindly mixed as to have made him the acknowledged 
model, at once, of the patriot, the hero, the statesman, 
the gentleman, the christian, and the sage. He was 
trained for the unequalled honors and the prodigious 
toils and trials of his career, by a childhood and youth 
of hardy nurture and grave responsibility. It is need- 
less for me to attempt to delineate his character, or to 
recall the incidents of his history. It rather becomes 
me, as the ]\Iinister of God, standing in this place and 
presence, to advert to that in his character — his reli- 
gious principle — -which was the secret of his strength, 
his wisdom, his greatness, and his success ; to hold it 
up for imitation, and to show, by his example, that a 
wise administration of affaii's, and a brave, unflinching 
adherence to duty, can result only from a practical, 
2 



1& 

solemn, and idealizing conviction of tlie presence and the 
government of tliat Almighty Being who doth accor- 
ding to his will in the army of Heaven, and among the' 
inhabitants of the earth. This is the lesson which 
we would have the history of Washustgtojst impress 
upon lis to-day, 

1. The fixed and ruling conviction of the mind of 
Washingtoist, which appears as well in his private as his- 
public life, was, that in the administration of affairs^ he 
eould expect true prosperity only so far as he put him- 
self in harmony with the mind^ and will^ and purposes^ 
of God^ in his governTnent of the nations. He who 
would conduct the affairs of war or State "without- 
fault" and with success, must do it under the eye, and 
with respect to the government of Him who sitteth 
upon the circle of the earth, ruling over all. He must 
go with the tide of God's government, and not against 
that tide. He must secure the blessing of the Al- 
mighty! Will he crush those whom he should pro- 
tect ? Will he invade those whom he should defend I 
Will he, for an advantage, violate his plighted word ? 
He cannot thus advance the prosperity of a land ! He- 
may gather, in a glittering heap, the spoils of robbery 
and the gains of treachery and falsehood. He may set 
the material instrumentalities of wealth and prosperity 
at such rapid work, as that the nation may be stunned 
and bewildered by the motion and the din. But over 
him there is suspended a moral law of retribution, strong 
with the strength, and quick with the judgment of 
Jehovah, which, when He lets it loose, overrules and . 
prostrates all the laws of nature and of society. And 
when that glittering heap of unrighteous wealth is 
piled up highest, this law shall strike it and scatter it 
to the winds ; and when the clank of this godless ma- 
chinery is loudest, and its power most Titan-like, this 



1^ 

law sliall smite it with a paralyzing curse, so that it 
shall j)ause powerless. The righteous ruler will rule 
wisely and prosperously, because he will go with God^ 
and not against God. 

2. This keeping of his eye on the hand of God, se- 
eured a wise and s i cooes s fid aotion on the part of Wash- 
ington, because it preserved him from the tyranny of 
those injiuences^ from which usually spring the sorrows 
and the sins of nations. From pride, ambition, un- 
regulated passion, usually spring the faults and the 
•crimes of warriors and of rulers. Now, if the ruler or 
statesmen have his eye on God, and look for His guid- 
ance and blessing, he will have his moral nature so ele- 
vated as to be, for the most part, free from the do- 
minion of evil passion and selfish feeling. It is men- 
tioned of Daniel, the pi'ophet and statesman, that there 
was no " error ^"^ as well as no ""^ fault " found in him. 
He not only did not commit crimes, but he was so free 
from mistakes that his enemies could get no advantage 
over him, on the ground of an imj3olitic and unwise ad- 
ministration. And from what do €ven the errors and 
mistakes of judgment spring, but from a false estimate 
of the worth and the true nature of things, and from 
some bias of wrong feeling, which jDrevents the right 
action of the reason ? The purei' a man's nature is — the 
more he is under the sway of right feeling, and princi- 
ple, and desii^e — ^the better and wiser will all his prac- 
tical judgments be. " God's word," saith the Psalmist, 
" giveth light and understanding to the simj^le." The 
wicked man is a fool^ and the righteous man loise^ not 
only in reference to the ultimate consequences of the 
course of each, but in reference to their present judg- 
ments and estimates of things. The man of God forms 
best judgments, because he lets reason, and not passion, 
speak ; because he takes into account the sure action 



20 

of moral laws — wMcli tlie wicked usually omit — and 
because lie is in the habit of postponing a present small 
good, for a future large one. In his comparative free- 
dom, then, from the sway of evil passion and impure 
motive, and from his calm and less biased judgment, 
we may look to find little error or fault in the measures 
of the ruler whose eye is on God. It is the arrogant 
demand, the cutting taunt, the proud recrimination, 
which will goad a neighbor nation into war. Just, and 
righteous, and self-regulated Washingtons will not utter 
them. It is greed, and pride, and luxury, which tempt 
rulers to oppress, and deceive, and defraud the people. 
Temperate and self-denying Washingtons will be free 
from the tyranny of those base j)assions. It is a short- 
sighted and material view of what constitutes the pros- 
perity of States, which leads to errors and mistakes of 
policy, which keep nations low. To be free from them 
in the conduct of affairs, the statesman must be free 
from the tyranny of vice, and pride, and passion. 

3. This habit of reference to Grod and duty, will en- 
sure a wise administration of affairs, because it greatly 
simplifies all questions^ and gives the ruler and states- 
man a prodigious advantage in all Ms dealings with 
corrupt^ designing^ and intriguing men. If a man be 
compelled to ask concerning any proposed measure or 
course of policy, will it wound enemies ? will it concili- 
ate friends ? will it reward partizans ? will it reconcile 
conflicting schemes, not of public good, but of selfish 
and sordid interest ? — if a man asks these questions, 
and acts upon these considerations, he becomes involved 
in a labyrinth, where he can never see a step beyond 
him, and out of which he can never come into the clear 
light of day. If this evil spirit possess him, his soul 
will be forever in a tangled wilderness, walking in dry 
places. But if he ask the simple questions — Is it right ? 



21 

is it called for by justice ? will it promote the public 
weal ? then the question is divested of much perplexity. 
He is kept free from entangling and contradictory mea- 
sures and engagements. His soul is not kicked about — • 
the foot-ball of a thousand filthy feet. There will be 
dignity, consistency, harmony, to his plans and mea- 
sures. Such was the conduct and the character of 
Washington. • When selfish and dishonest men gather 
about such a ruler, to offer base service for base hire, 
they will not know how to approach him. They will 
be awed into silence. They will be driven into obscu- 
rity. Their occupation will be gone. Let the states- 
man and legislator hang up, in the tem^^le of his heart, 
the tablets of God's law, written in golden capitals. 
Let him bind them for a sign upon his hand, and for 
frontlets between his eyes ; let him write them upon the 
door-posts of his house and of his gates ; let them be 
the avowed, and known, and only principles of his con- 
duct, and he shall be always furnished with a ready rule 
for action ; he will put to flight the tricks of diplomacy 
and the intrigues of low ambition ; he will stand with a 
clear space about him, able to see where he is, and 
where he is going ; he will march, as in triumphal pro- 
gress, along the far-stretching avenue of time, hned and 
crowded with successive generations, amid the cheers 
and smiles of admiring nations! Such is the majestic 
march of Washington ! 

I have thought these views were suitable to this day 
and place, and I would leave these lessons here under a 
deep conviction that piety alone, which lays hold of 
the strength of God, can enable public men to stand 
true to themselves and their duty, in the midst of the 
fearful trials and temptations to which they are expo- 
sed. Say of one, that he has laid down certain princi- 



22 

pies of lionor and morality, to wMcli lie intends to 
abide through life — principles whicli have little or no 
direct reference, as held in his own mind, to God. Now 
he is exposed, in public life, more than in private, to 
the delusions of expediency. Will his principles always 
enable him to master the suggestions of expediency ? 
But he is exposed to stronger tests and trials. A great 
bribe, a splendid prize, the very object of his hope is 
before him, which he may grasp, if he will do it by 
treachery and wrong. Now watch that man ! Is not the 
desire for this prize that which is nearest to his heart ? 
Has he not kept the motives of interests closer before 
him than those of duty — proposing to call the latter to 
him when they shall be needed ? Which is nearest, 
most familiar, most habitually present and prevalent 
with him ? These vague principles, kept in the back- 
ground, and having no eternal sanctions — shall they 
come forward now, and conquer ? Would it not, in many 
cases, be calling spirits from the vasty deep ? Having 
given his soul up, habitually, to interest, indulgence, 
and desire, must they not now, roused into more energy 
than ever, bear away the soul ? Or take another case. 
A man is stung with the wrongs and insults of a rival. 
His ruui is plotted. His fair fame is blackened. But 
he can win a victory ; he can recover his position ; he 
can overthrow his rival, if lie will let Ms ])rinGi])les sleep 
the while. Now what is there that is near him ? What, 
from his previous moral training, will be most likely to 
stand before his soul with attractiveness and power ? 
Will it not be his dear advantage, his sweet revenge, 
his masterly success? Will not his soul be raised 
to a vehement pursuit of those near, attractive, and 
beckoning objects ? Can such moral principles as he 
has adopted hold him now ? Why should they ? They 
are not present — they are not before him to tell of high 



23 

joy if followed, and of keen wo if resisted. They are not 
before the soul as its aus^ust and venerated and recoo:- 
nized lords. What power, then, have they ? They will 
not hold the soul to its moral purpose, like an anchor, 
sure and steadfast. They will be dragged in the wake 
of the soul, driven onward by the tempest of the pas- 
sions ; broken cables, without an anchor ! Oh there is 
awful power in the roused up evil passions of the hu- 
man soul ! Nothing is strong enough to master them 
but God — the truth and grace of God. This held firm 
to truth, to duty, to patriotism, to self-denying toil, to a 
self-consecration of himself and his fame, amid oblo- 
quy, intrigue, and base persecution, the great, the pure, 
the majestic, the unselfish soul of Washington ! 

We have contemplated to-day the unequalled bles- 
sings which as a nation we enjoy. For these let us 
render to God our earnest praises. We have seen that 
in which lay the strength and glory of the venerable 
Father of his Country. In that let us imitate his ex- 
ample. A beautiful and matchless example it is of 
private and of public virtue. It rises and towers aloft 
and alone on the field of history, majestic, proportioned, 
and pure ! His fame is well symbolized by the monu- 
ment which is rising near us, to commemorate his 
services and our everlasting gratitude. It is, like that 
monument, deep and strong in its foundations, simple in 
its form, pure in its material, massive in its structure, 
and has hut the beginning of the elevation which it is 
destined to attain! It shall rise hio^her and hisrher, 
as the ages pass along; and should the sun of this 
Eepublic ever set, " the last rays of its dej)arting glory 
shall linger and play upon its summit."'^ 

* Daniel Webster. 



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